The Sirian Crisis
by Titan 386
Summary: Thirty two years ago, Cerneria was destroyed by an unknown force, and the people of Lylat either didn't know or didn't care the it happen.  Now, after an experiment gone awry, it is up to Samantha McCloud to save the Lylat system from that same enemy.
1. Chapter 1: Accidents Happen

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox. Additionally, this story is written under the impression that Star Fox Command is considered non-canon and did not happen.

Introduction

Year 00 ADC (After the Destruction of Cerinia) – the planet Cerinia is destroyed by unknown powers

Year 03 ADC – the events of the Saurian crisis transpire

Year 04 ADC – the events of the Aparoid invasion transpire

Year 06 ADC – Krystal, the only known survivor of the destruction of Cerinia, and Fox McCloud, the hero of Lylat, marry

Year 10 ADC – Samantha Vixy McCloud is born

Year 26 ADC – Samantha McCloud joins the Cornerian Flight Academy at sixteen.

Year 32 ADC – Present day

Chapter one: Accidents Happen.

Date/Time : June 1st, 32 ADC / 1100

Location : Orbital Research Station 1, Hangar 5.

Samantha McCloud was anxious. Today she helping test a new warp drive system that could revolutionize faster than light travel. The idea would be that the new drive would tear open a rift into another dimension, allowing a vessel to "slip" through space to its destination. It was faster than the old ward drives and much, much smaller. In fact these new drives could be fitted onto a fighter… theoretically.

Today she was going to test the new drive on a modified Arwing fighter, the first time for the drives to be used on such a small vehicle. The project's head engineer, Science Officer William James DuFrain, had assured her repeatedly that drive would work, but in the back of her mind she was still worried about the new system.

Sam sat in her bird's cockpit, drumming her fingers on the throttle, while technicians scurried around with scanners doing another pre-flight check - the tenth check to be exact. She knew that techs were just being careful, but the constant worrying was starting to make her nervous.

_"Calm down, Captain."_ DuFrain said through the internal speakers. _"You have absolutely nothing to worry about."_

"I'll be better once we finally get started." Samantha replied, "Just tell your boys to hurry up down here."

_"They should have been done a while ago."_ DuFrain said. _"I'll tell them to hurry up so you can get on the way."_

No more than a minute later Captain McCloud received the green light from the Flight Control Tower. She decided to us her psychic powers, given to her from her mother, to look into the minds of the technicians and see what kept them so busy. To her relief and dismay, the problem was nothing to do with her craft but rather had to do with something else her mother had given her, her looks. She sulked as she engaged her Arwing's engines and prepared for take-off.

She finally took off. As she exited the hangar DuFrain contacted her, _"Alright. First things first Captain. We need you to start execute a few basic maneuvers so we can compare the Arwing's handling to our control."_

"I thought this would be a test of the FTL drive, not my piloting skills."

_"It is, don't worry. We just want to be sure that the new hardware isn't going to cause any problems in combat."_ DuFrain explained. _"Look, the faster you do this the sooner we can finish this test and go home Captain."_

After short while it was finally time for the real test. "Okay Captain, you should see an IR beacon about one thousand kilometers away on you HUD now – that is you first jump target. You need to aim yourself dead center of that target and activate your FTL drive. The coordinates have already been uploaded to your flight computer."

"Understood." Sam said. "I'm powering up the FTL drive now." Points of light appear along the length of her craft as the drive pooled energy. The points came together at the nose of the craft as the drive reached its critical power level, resulting in a small, bright vortex. An instant later the lights and the Arwing were gone.

In the observation post aboard ORS-1 Science Officer DuFrain waited for the craft to reappear at the beacon. After a few seconds he started to worry. The Arwing was supposed to only take two seconds to make the jump, but it was still missing. He licked his lips as he felt a pair of eyes digging a hole in the back of his skull. The project's commander, General Kennings, put a hand roughly on DuFrain's shoulder and said, "Science Officer, correct me if I'm wrong, but our pilot should be at the beacon by now, shouldn't she""

"Yes, sir."

"Is she?"

DuFrain gulped, "No sir."

"Then could you please tell me, WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?" the General roared.

"I… I don't know sir." DuFrain said. "I think her FTL drive malfunctioned. Maybe it's just going to take longer than we expected."

"Or maybe you should have listened to me when I said your calculations were wrong, you idiot." A shrill voice yelled as a toad came storming onto the observation deck.

"Who the hell are you?" the general demanded.

"My name's Philip Toad. I'm a civilian consultant your idiotic officer hired to double check his work."

The general's nostrils flared in frustration. "DuFrain, I'll deal with you later. For now, I need one of you to tell me where my pilot is, and if she is alive."

Philip cleared his throat. "She's somewhere along the vector she was pointed in when the drive was engaged, that much we can be certain of. It's next to impossible to know just how far she went though. She could have gone ten light-years, or ten thousand."

"So what do we do to get her back? Should I send a recovery team?"

DuFrain answered this time, "No, we'd just lose them as well. Unless they jumped under the exact same conditions as Captain McCloud. All we can do is hope she can turn herself around and come back."

"He's right General." Philip agreed.

Kennings toyed with the idea of tossing DuFrain out an airlock for a minute, but finally decided against it. "DuFrain, come with me. The two of us need to go have a pleasant conversation with the McCloud family about how you have most likely killed their daughter. After that, you and Toad are going to spend a lot of time coming up with a better solution than 'wait and see.' Am I clear?"

"Yes sir."

Date/Time: Unknown

Location: Unknown

Samantha watched as the lights around her Arwing disappeared. A smile spread on her face as she activated her radio to call DuFrain. "Looks like it worked, DuFrain. So what's next?"

She waited a minute, but received no reply. "DuFrain… Do you read me?"

Still no answer. Sam huffed in annoyance as she pulled up a diagnostic program to see if the problem was with her Arwing. All systems where running fine, so she tried broadcasting on more channels.

"This is Captain McCloud broadcasting on all Cornerian Navy channels, does anyone read me?" Still nothing. She started widening her broadcast until she was on all channels, but there was still no answer. It was now that she realized that the stars were in completely different spots, and more importantly she was now near a planet which she had never seen before. It was a solid planet with a mostly white surface, broken by great swathes of green along the planets equator.

She sat there stunned for a moment before shouting, "Danmit DuFrain, I'm going to KILL you!"

As Sam sat idle, her curses becoming more and more colorful with each passing second, her Arwing warned her of an incoming message on an unknown channel. After taking a second to call down, she opened the channel. Before Sam could open her mouth, a clipped male voice spoke through her speakers. _"Unknown craft. You are currently in Sirian controlled space. You are order to turn around and leave at once. If you do not comply then our fighters will engage. Do not bother replying to this message."_

As the message played four large, heavily armed fighters came streaking up from the planet's surface. They looked like massive flying wings nearly four times the size of her craft with engines to match.

Samantha checked the status of her FTL drive, out of energy – figures. Next she looked at her weapons, nothing but her canons – again, figures. "No use crying over spilled milk." She grumbled while putting a paw on the throttle.

_ "Unknown craft, this is your final warning. Leave or we will engag_e." After McCloud didn't respond the man spoke one last time_. "Very well."_

"This is going to be so much fun." Sam groaned as the four incoming planes increased speed towards her. Covers along the edges of the wings folded into the crafts, revealing massive rotary cannons on either side of the crafts' cockpits and several racks of missiles. "I just had to open my damn mouth."

As the enemy fighter closed within three kilometers she triggered her laser cannons, spitting a tight group of deadly, red bolt at that center craft. To her dismay the bolts all dissipated against the fighter's armor, causing little more damage than ruining the thing's paint job. The massive fighters responded by unleashing a torrent of projectiles at her – to her it was like a meteor shower from hell.

When Sam realized she wasn't dead, she opened her eyes and released the breath she had been unconsciously holding. She watched as the four enemies zoomed by and used the time they would need to turn around to check the status of her craft. She was leaking atmosphere, and her bird's wings, cannons, and missile bay were all either severally damaged or destroyed. However, the reactor had not been compromised and the engines were still mostly operable. It didn't take long for her to decide what to do.

She slammed her throttle as far as it would go, redlining her engines. The Arwing responded by shooting off like a bullet, slamming Samantha back into her seat hard enough to knock the wind out of her. Sam's plan was simple. Outrun the fighters, get into the atmosphere of the planet that was two hundred kilometers away, and eject as soon as she could. She knew there was little to no chance for her to find a way to get home, but she wasn't ready to roll over and die just yet.

So she kept one eye on the screen showing the view from her aft camera, and while the other made she was still heading towards the planet. The fighters were about two kilometers behind her know and still in mid-turn. By the time they had finished turning around she had already covered a third of the distance to the planet. She watched as the fighters sped up to match her speed, and then surpassed it. Soon they were closing the distance at a rapid pace.

She started to sweat as the fighters grew closer and closer. By the time she reached the atmosphere of the frozen world the fighters were within weapons range. As one, they unleashed another withering barrage of cannon-fire, but to Sam's good fortune the pilots forgot to compensate for the planet's gravity. Every round passed well underneath her craft. As the enemy pilots corrected their mistake and prepared for their final barrage, McCloud heard a massive crash from the rear of her craft.

A warning sign appeared on her HUD. The engines had just sheared off. Samantha sighed, "Figures."

While the Arwing broke up, Sam punched out. Hoping the pilots would mistake her chair for just another piece of the wreck. The chair rocketed away from the dying Arwing as the Arwing split into more pieces. Sam looked up as the chair fell and felt a wave of relief as the fighters roar overhead with no reaction to the ejected pilot. She thought she had made it until the planes started turning around to make a second pass. As if on cue, her chair's chute deployed – her chair's giant, bright orange chute.

She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, but instead of the stream of cannon fire she was expecting, a she heard a massive explosion. She opened her eyes in time to see two more explosions that enveloped two of the fighters. The final pilot didn't want to stick around and experience the same fate as his wing mates.

The last pilot ignored Samantha, leaving her free to investigate what happened to the other three planes. When she looked, she could clearly see three faint smoke trails that came from about the same point on the planet's surface about three klicks away.

"Looks like I've found the enemy of my enemy." Sam mused to herself as she drifted to the ground. "Hopefully whoever shot those guy down will be friendlier. At this rate though, I seriously doubt it."

_**Author's notes :: Alright, this is my first time writing and posting a story, so please be gentle in your reviews. Whether ya'll like it or not, I'll continue writing this story.**_

_**Anyway, please read and review.**_


	2. Chapter 2: Hunted

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox. Additionally, this story is written under the impression that Star Fox Command is considered non-canon and did not happen.

Chapter Two: Hunted.

Date/Time : Unknown – early morning

Location : Unknown

Samantha started working at removing the survival kit attached to her seat as soon as it hit the snow. She took a quick inventory and wasn't pleased with her findings. She had about a week's worth of dry ratios, a couple days worth of water, a thermal blanket, a penlight, and her blaster – no cold weather survival gear. To make things worse, her flight suit didn't have much insulation. She was already starting to lose feeling in her arms and legs.

Samantha gathered her supplies a started walking away from the chair. She still had no clue where she should go, but for now the best thing she could do was simply put distance between her and that chair. Hopefully she could find somewhere safe to hide and plan, or, failing at that, she could at least make capturing her a nightmare for whoever tried.

Around midday Samantha found herself following a rough road cutting through the frozen landscape. At first she was apprehensive about staying so close to the path that any would be captures would almost certainly take, but Sam soon realized she could stay well hidden just inside the tree line and still see the road.

As she walked, Sam heard and low growl in the distance, steadily getting louder with every step she took. She instantly crouched down behind a tree and peeked around to see two armed and armored vehicles. Each vehicle looked like a normal truck with some armored plating covering the wheels and the engine, and had a pair of high caliber machine guns on top.

Sam watched as a group of ten men spilled out onto the road, five from each vehicle. Each of them was dressed head to toe in dark grey winter combat gear and most wore balaclavas over their faces. From what was visible Sam could tell that men all were more or less like her race; however, unlike the people of the Lylat system all these men had dark red fur and all seemed to be canine. Appearance aside, the men also possessed considerable firepower.

The soldiers carrier various weapons, including rifles, pistols, shotguns, and sub-machineguns. Most of their weapons seemed to use gunpowder technology – something Sam had never seen a working example of, but after her experience with the fighters earlier, she wasn't about to underestimate the weapons' power.

Eight of the men spread out in a rough circle around the trucks while two of their number sprinted off into the woods, just to come back out a few seconds later. Samantha used her psychic powers to scan the minds of the scouts to see what the soldiers were planning. She learned that the men had been doing this for most of the morning. They found her tracks by the road a few miles back and had been making hundred meter jumps looking for either a pilot or an end to the tracks, which meant they would be breathing down her neck in about five minutes.

Unbeknownst to McCloud or the soldiers, they were being watched. Three men clad in full arctic camouflage hid one and a half miles down and on the opposite side of the road, safely hidden behind a low mound of snow. One man watched from the top of the mound trough the high powered scope of a sniper's rifle while the other two waited for a report.

"The Legionnaires are out of the Fastback's. Hopefully they'll find something this time so we can get out of this damn snow." The man with the sniper's rifle muttered.

"They will sooner or later, Allen. We just have to be patient and be ready to intervene as soon as they find that pilot."

"I still don't like this idea of yours, Drew." The third man spoke up. "I still say we should attack now and track the pilot down ourselves."

Allen responded, "It easier for them to find the pilot, Nick. I don't like this anymore than you do, but it's easier this way. We let them find the pilot for us, ambush them when they head back this way, grab the pilot, and disappear before anyone's the wiser."

"What if they just kill the pilot?" Nick demanded.

"Then there will be a war." Drew answered for Allen. "Actually, I'm certain there's going to be a war even if the pilot survives."

"I doubt they'll kill the pilot if they can avoid it. They probably have orders to take him alive." Allen said, "More importantly, I see the pilot."

"You sure?" Drew asked.

"Positive. Blue and white fur, black bodysuit… obviously female – she's watching the soldiers through the trees right now." Allen reported. "Never mind. She just ran off through the forest. And… there go the Legionnaires. Looks like we need to get ready."

Samantha dashed through the trees. It was an impulsive decision, and she was now realizing it also was a very bad decision. Instead of losing the soldiers she had only succeeded in getting their attention. Now she could sense the entire squad following her and gaining at a rapid pace. Sam didn't get very far before she tripped over a tree root hidden under the snow.

Sam could already hear the soldiers through the forest, the snow crunching under their feet. It was only a matter of time before they found her and did who knows what to her. She knew running would only prolong the inevitable at this point, so instead she pulled her blaster out of its holster and hid as best as she could.

After a few minutes Sam could finally make out figures moving through the forest. They were in a loose V formation following her trail through the snow. Sam raised her blaster and steadied it with both hands, resting the sights on the pointman's chest. While she waited for her target to get closer she felt the something cold press against the back of her head.

"Drop the weapon and turn around, slowly."

McCloud complied, shocked that she didn't sense the man behind her. It wasn't just that she didn't notice him, but that she couldn't sense him. According to her powers, the man wasn't even there.

The man retrieved her weapon and quickly patted her down. Satisfied that she was no longer a threat to his squad, the man took a step back and ordered, "Put your hands on your head and start walking."

McCloud hung her head as the soldiers led her back to their vehicles at gunpoint. She felt disgraced to have been shot down and captured without even scratching a single enemy.

She continued to sulk as the soldier loaded her into the second truck and drove off. It was looking like the end for the young pilot. Disgraced, alone, and left with no hope for rescue – Samantha felt like a lousy excuse for a McCloud.

Fate – and more importantly three heavily armed men – had other ideas for her.

The convoy had only gotten a short distance when one of the men shouted. "INCOMING!" Sam was abruptly pulled out her self-pity as the front vehicle erupted into flames and was flipped on its side. An instant later she heard a massive crack followed by the sound of her truck's engine grinding to a halt.

"Get out! Get out!" The driver shouted as he started to open his door. "We're under att-" The rest was cut out by a third crack as a round punched through the door and the driver, blowing a hole in the man.

"SHIT!" The man riding shotgun yelled as he rolled out of his open door, followed by two of the men guarding Sam. The three men took cover behind to truck and returned fire even though they weren't sure were the sniper was. Sam watched as a man dress in full white camouflage and armed with a shotgun walked out of the forest line only a few feet behind the three gunmen. The newcomer fired several blasts, killing the three before they had a chance to fight back.

Only a few short, violent seconds had passed from the first shot to the last, leaving only one soldier, Samantha, and the mystery attackers left alive. The last soldier pointed his gun at her and ordered. "Get out."

Sam slowly slinked out of the truck on the side with the man with the shotgun and the soldier followed. She half expected to be killed as soon as she exited the truck, but instead the man lowered his weapon and glared at the soldier. The soldier grabbed Sam by her arm and kept her between him and the newcomer, and he kept the truck between him and the sniper.

"So you're after the pilot too?" The soldier spoke as he circled the man until his back was facing the woods. "What would you Raiders want with her?"

"None of your business, don't you concern yourself over the 'why' and just know we do." The man responded.

Now that Sam was facing the sniper's position, she could see that there were at least three men, the one in front of her with the shotgun and two more that were now advancing. One of the men had a rocket launcher resting on his shoulder, and the other had a huge rifle slung over his back and a pistol trained on the soldier.

The soldier aimed Samantha's blaster at the men then at her head. "Don't come any closer or I'll shoot." The men stopped, but they didn't lower their weapons. "Good, now listen up."

While the soldier started to go on about the Raiders letting him go, Sam mustered up her courage and prepared to regain her self-respect. The soldier finished laying out his terms, "So do we have an agreement. You let me go, and I'll release the girl."

Sam took a deep breath and said, "That's assuming I'm going to let you go." With that she hiked her legs up and behind the soldier's knees, knocking his legs out from under him. When they landed Sam recovered first and kicked herself up. She knocked the weapon out of the downed man's hand and kicked him in his side. She retrieved her blaster and pointed it at the soldier, ready the kill the man.

Before she could though, the closest Raider had already rushed over and stopped her. "Wait, we want this one left alive." He said. "That way he can tell everyone that the pilot is now protected by the Raiders."

The soldier sat up and looked at the Raider. "Thank-"

He was cut off by a sharp blast as his head was knocked back with a neat little hole between his eyes. The Raider wheeled on his teammates and roared. "What the fuck was that! He was unarmed!"

"He was still a threat Nick. He was about to trigger his transponder and bring all his buddies down on our heads. You would have seen that if you were paying attention." The sniper replied calmly.

Nick was about to say something, but Sam cut him off. "Who are you people?"

The third man answered. "I'm Andrew Ryan, and these are my brothers, Allen and Nicholas Ryan. We're the Raiders, or at least that's what the government calls us."

Sam studied her apparent rescuers. Allen was the group's sniper which stuck her as odd because he was easily the largest one of the three, at least a head taller than everyone else. Nick was the shortest of the three – shorter than her – and from she what had seen, the most impulsive as well. Both of them had red fur – Nick's maroon and Allen's crimson – and were roughly her age. Drew was the odd ball of the three it would seem. He was roughly her height; what made him stand out was that he was older, by almost ten years if she had to guess, and more his fur was a different color. It was blue.

Sam looked between the three and said, "Why are you helping me?"

"We'll explain latter, but right now isn't the best time. Someone probably heard the fighting, so we need to get out of here before anymore Legionaries show up." Drew said. "For now you're just going to have to go on faith Miss…?

"Captain McCloud. Samantha McCloud." Sam told him. "And doesn't look like I many choices other than to go with you three."

"Very well." Drew said. "Let's get back to the cars. Nick, take point."

Samantha followed Nick and Drew, wrapping her arms around her chest in a vain attempt to keep warm. Suddenly she felt like warmth embrace her as Allen caught up and draped a thick coat over her shoulders. When she looked at the coat she realized it belonged to one of the late Legionnaire soldiers. She felt a little sick from the thought of where the coat had come from, but she wasn't about to let that cause her to freeze to death. At least the coat didn't have any blood on it.

"Thank you." She said as she slipped her arms into the sleeves of the too large coat.

"You're welcome." Allen responded. "Last thing we want is for you to die on us after all we've gone through to save you."

"Yeah, about that." Sam started as Nick led the group through the trees. "Why did you save me?"

"Don't worry, answers will come." Allen said with a slight smile. "For now let's worry about getting somewhere warm."

_**Author's Notes / And so the story continues. For those of you who care, I have information on the primary OC's in this story on my profile page. The information is prone to change and more detail will be added as time goes on.**_

_** Also, thank you to all of you who left reviews. You're feedback was reassuring and helpful. Please review again. Please tell me what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong.**_


	3. Chapter 3: Where We Stand

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox. Additionally, this story is written under the impression that Star Fox Command is considered non-canon and did not happen.

Chapter Three: Where We Stand

Date/Time : August 23, 2893 / 1500 (Sirian calendar / local time)

Location : Planet Dante of the Sirian Empire.

Samantha woke up in a warm, soft bed in a dimly lit room. Her still sleepy mind couldn't remember where she was, but she knew she wasn't in her own bed. It smelled wrong – too masculine. Even more surprising was that her beautiful blue and white fur was now bright red.

She saw her blaster in its holster hanging on the foot of the bed. Sam reached forward and yanked the weapon from its holster, searching the room for any dangers that her still half asleep brain thought there were. She started remembering where she was as her brain shook off the last vestiges of sleep.

After the Ryans rescued her yesterday, they had led her to a pair of cars. They loaded all the heavy weapons into the trunk of one, and Nick and Drew took that car, saying they would take care of the weapons. Allen and Sam piled the second car, which Allen drove for several hours until they reached a small town where the three had rented an apartment.

Nick and Drew caught up with them a few hours later, with several new changes of clothing and jars of fur dye. Drew explained that all Sirians had some shade of red fur and that anybody whose fur was diffent would stand out like a sore thumb. So last night Samantha had applied the dye.

Sam calmed down once she remembered where she was and that she was… relatively safe – she still had no guarantees that the Raiders wouldn't turn her in or use her the second it would benefit them. Quickly getting dressed in a pair of jeans and a plain T-shirt the Ryans had bought her and attaching her holster to her belt, Sam walked out of her room into the apartments main living space. She found Allen there, sitting in front of a large holographic display. The display was shaped like a fairly large orb, and he was manipulating it using his hands and eyes. Compared to the Sirian weapons and vehicles she had seen so far this seemed extremely advanced, even by Cornerian standards.

"You act like you've never seen a computer before." Allen said, turning to face her as he did.

"Never one like that." Sam admitted.

After a few silent seconds of searching for the rest of Ryans with her powers, Sam realized that neither Nick nor Drew was in the apartment, or anywhere near it. Starting to get paranoid about the three double crossing her, she asked, "Where are your brothers?"

"Why does it matter?" Allen asked calmly.

"I have trouble trusting people I meant less than twenty-four hours ago, especially after getting shot down in unknown space."

"Understandable." Allen replied before answering, "Since you asked, they're off cleaning up the mess we made yesterday. If the Sirian Legionnaires catch wind that the Raiders are here, then they'll shut this system down. And if that happens then we're all dead."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Sam asked.

"Because we have the same enemy." Allen said seriously, "Besides, if we were going to turn over to the Legion, then you'd already be stripped down in a five-by-five cell drinking thiopental through an IV drip."

"You came up with that one quick." Sam said taken aback by his description.

"Talk to Drew, he's the one with firsthand experience." Allen said darkly, "You do not want the same thing to happen to you, and neither do we."

Sam's paranoia slacked a good deal – she could tell Allen was being sincere. She sunk into a chair and sat there in silence for several minutes. Finally she spoke again, "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Sure, go ahead." Allen said.

"Why are you fighting?"

Allen pondered the question a moment before answering, "It's a long story, but one you probably need to here."

"It all started with my father some forty years ago. He was a scientist working for a mining company to find a way to more effectively process large stellar bodies – uh, basically taking big asteroids and breaking them into much smaller pieces that can be processed. To do this he designed a massive platform that generates superheated plasma lances that connect to other platforms arrayed around a body. These lances burn at well over the surface temperature of a star, and they're bought in contact with the surface of the body. This destabilizes it ultimately causing the target to fall apart."

Sam held up a hand to stop him and asked, "That's nice, but how at all does this answer my question?"

"Well I'm not done yet. Look, the important part is that my dad designed a massive machine that could take big shit an turn it into little pieces. It'll make since if you let me finish, alright?"

Sam nodded and Allen continued, "Good, now, please, no more interrupting. Anyway, his machine worked marvelously. Some of the militaries upper brass thought it worked a little too well, and two years later demanded that the technology and any personal who worked on it be turned over the Legionnaires, who at the time were still little more than the empire wide police force. They were going to regulate use of the machine for safety reasons.

Then four years later, the commander of the Legionnaires retired, leaving General Ivery Bennit – who is now the Minister of Defense. Bennit wanted to see the mining tool turned into a weapon, but the emperor didn't want any of it. Building a super weapon would give him bad publicity. So Bennit had the technology scaled up and told the emperor it was so the tech could be used on bigger stones – all he needed was a target to test it on. The Emperor agreed to let him use a small, rocky, unused planet for the test. The planet was destroyed, the test was a success, and Bennit wasn't satisfied. He wanted to test the weapon on a planet with atmosphere, but the Emperor didn't want to waste a potentially habitable planet for a weapon test.

So without the Emperor's knowledge Bennit started looking for planets outside Sirian space with atmosphere. He got his wish. Two years after the weapon's first test, Bennit has it whisked away under the Emperor's nose along with a fleet of nine ships and the scientist who first designed the weapon, my father. Dad was there to help fine turn the weapon. Bennit had told Dad the Emperor had given him permission to conduct the test and assured him that the test world was unpopulated, which was the only reason me dad agreed to help.

As the test was conducted the atmosphere slowed the plasma's progress. My dad watched as the lance's cut down into the atmosphere, and dozens of ships rose up out of the planet's heavy clouds. Most were destroyed when Bennit ordered the escort fleet to attack, a handful escaped, and one was captured by the primary firing platform. On the captured ship were several dozen survivors – most were cut down before they knew what happened. One, a young child, was spared because none of the Legionnaires would kill a baby, and my dad begged Bennit for the child's life in return for his silence. Child's name according to the ship's databases was Onyx, with no last name give. The dead, charred husk of the planet that was suppose uninhabited was Cerinia.

My dad kept his piece like he promised and returned home to my mom. They gave Onyx a new name, Andrew Ryan, in hopes of giving him a somewhat normal life. Drew knew he wasn't Sirian, and when he learned my dad's part in the destruction of his true home – well let's say it took a long time calm him down. When Drew was twenty he convinced my dad to expose Bennit, who was the newly appointed minister of defense.

Dad hid my mom, Nick, and I to the planet Gemini IV – I was thirteen at the time. They didn't tell us where they were going or when they'd return. Five years later, Drew turns up on our doorstep with bullet wounds over his body, and he father dead in his arms. He never told us what happened to them over those five years. He told us who did it though, and that was all I cared about."

Allen sat there, staring into space lost in thought. "Why do we fight? At first it was for revenge."

"'At first'?" Sam asked. "Why only at first?"

"Since we started fighting Bennit, we've gained new reasons to kill the bastard."

"Like what?"

"For starters, we've been keeping tabs on my father's creation, now called the Lancer. Twice it has disappeared, and come back with some battle damage – meaning Bennit's been destroying more worlds than just Cerinia, and they've been fighting back. I'm willing to bet he's been trying to track down those Cerinian survivors and clean them up."

"Why? Doesn't he realize that attacking those planets will just bring war sooner or later?"

"He does, and that's the reason you were shot down the second you enter this system. He's paranoid and he's ordered the Sirian Legion to destroy any and all planes that do not transmit a Sirian IFF. Of course this has led to a few civilian casualties, but nothing that couldn't be covered up."

"What if he starts a war with a civilization that doesn't just have one planet? I doubt he can cover up a massive enemy fleet entering a system."

"And he won't have to. They'll be the aggressors; at least that's what everyone will think. And I doubt he really cares about starting a war. The Sirian Empire stretches over seventy systems, spanning over three hundred light-years. We have enough personnel and resources to tackle almost any enemy." Allen explained. "Look, this guy has become paranoid, he has immense power in the government, and the Sirian Legion has become his own personal army – with the men and equipment to rival the army and navy. Not a good combination."

"No, it isn't." Sam agreed quietly. "Is it just the three of you fighting or are there more people like you?"

"We have a few allies, but none of them can take the fight to Bennit like we can. Luckily the Legion is all we actually need to worry about. The Army and Navy tend to ignore us. Turns out the brass doesn't like the Legion's newfound power, so they like it when someone give the Legion or Bennit grief." Allen explained.

"Three men against an army… any way you could use a pilot without a bird?" Sam asked.

Allen's mouth grew into a smile, "I think we can find a place for you. And don't worry about not having a bird. We keep a few modified Thunderheads in working order. You'll have plenty of fun with one of those."

"Sounds like we have ourselves a deal. I help you bring Bennit to justice." Sam said.

"And we'll keep you alive and get you home as soon as we can." Allen finished while holding out a hand, and they shook on it.

"So what's our first move?" Samantha asked.

"I have no idea." Allen admitted. "We've been waiting for a break for the last few months, but nothing's come our way. For now, I guess we should concentrate on getting you home; in the meantime, we'll just have to keep our ears to the ground and hope something comes up."

Sam simply nodded. A few minutes later, Allen spoke up. "I believe it's my turn to ask a question now."

"Fair enough."

"Why are you here?" Allen asked.

"A complete and total accident. My people were testing a new FTL drive and I volunteered to be the guinea pig. The drive was powered up, and I was short here."

"So no one knows you're here. They just know you're gone. Any idea just how far the FTL drive shot you?"

"Nope. The drive was designed for capital ships, but some genius decided it would work just as well on a single fighter; I guess we know how that worked out." Sam joked.

Allen seemed lost in thought for a few seconds before he spoke again. "I assume the drive was something like a rift drive, wasn't it. That would explain why it would work of a large vessel but not on your fighter. They require a minimum mass if you're going to use it; otherwise, there is no telling how far it will shoot you. A blink drive would solve that problem."

Allen stayed silent after he finished, staring into space thinking. Only to be jerked out of it as the front door slammed open. Sam turned and yanked out her blaster, only to lower it when she saw Nick and a now red-furred Drew. They shed their coats and threw themselves into a couple chairs.

"How'd it go?" Allen asked.

Drew sighed, "Well, we managed to make it look like the Wardogs were responsible for the attack. And I doubt they're going to bother denying it. The reason we took so long is what we saw on our way back. A flatbed carrying something fairly large that was covered up by a thick tarp."

Nick held up a piece of metal, saying, "This fell off." The piece was badly charred, but Sam recognized it as a piece of her bird.

Drew looked at her with a serious face and asked, "Was there anything at all that could lead them back to where you come from? Starcharts, flight records, anything. If they get access to that kind of information, I grantee you they will use it, and they will attack."

"My fighter's computers had navigation information and the black box recorded the jump, but all the information was encrypted the second the fighter took damage." Sam said.

"What kind of encryption?" Drew asked, "How big?"

"Ten megabyte encryption code." Sam answered.

"Damn," Nick said in awe, "That's a friggen massive code. Even with the best decryption software available it's going to take them months to punch through that."

"So we have some breathing room." Allen said. "It's a fair assumption that they are going to be moving to fighter. We just need to find out where."

"Since the Legion doesn't keep anything but a few fighters in this system," Drew said, "they will either have to wait for a carrier to be sent, or they'll borrow a Navy ship to move it. I'd be willing to bet they go with the latter."

"Which means the local Naval base will have a record of where it's going to be taken." Allen smiled. "We can work with this. I think tomorrow Allen Stone is going to the Naval base to make a sale."

"Wait, what?" Sam asked. "Who is…"

"Don't worry, you'll see." Allen said, "I need to get ready."

_**Author's Notes :: This chapter was a friggen pain to write. I went through five different versions of this chapter before finding one that sounded good to me. Even then I think this could still be much better.**_

_**Anyway, griping aside, I promise then won't be many chapters like this one – one for sure but hopefully that'll be it. Like always please review. Hope ya'll enjoyed it. **_


	4. Chapter 4: Infiltrator

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox. Additionally, this story is written under the impression that Star Fox Command is considered non-canon and did not happen.

Chapter Four: Infiltrator

Date/Time : August 24, 2893 / 1130

Location : Moray system, Dante, New Torren, Darrus Shipyards Naval Base _**(AN :: System, planet, city, location)**_

"Everything looks in order Mr. Stone. Please proceed directly to the Armory; Petty Officer Higgs will meet you there."

"Thank you." Mr. Stone said as he took his identification chips back from the guard. "Um, which way to the Armory?"

"Take the left hall all the way to the end, turn right and it'll be the fifth door on the left. Just follow the signs."

Stone thanked him again before walking down the hall. "Did you get the schematics, or will I be looking for the servers the hard way Drew?" He whispered almost inaudibly, moving his mouth as little as possible. The vibrations of his vocal cords were picked up by a small device laid on one of his molars, which in turn sent a signal to a receiver.

_"Yeah Allen, I got the schematics." _Drew replied through the micro-bead ear piece that Allen wore. _"The server room is roughly twenty meters east of the Armory and two floors down. You'll need to get rid of the Officer, preferably non-lethal."_

Allen adjusted his fake glasses and suit, feeling extremely uncomfortable in the clothing. He reached the armory door and walked in. The Petty Officer wasn't there yet so Allen responded, "The Stone ID is getting overused. I'm going to send the PO after something as soon as I can, get the data, and leave."

_"Just going to let Stone go I see."_ Drew said. _"I'll get with my guy at the Titan Arms Corporation and see about getting a new ID."_

"Let's focus at the task at hand." Allen said an instant before the Armory door opened and a wolf in a naval uniform with a Petty Officer's insignia on the sleeve.

"Mr. Stone, I'm Petty Officer Second Class Rodney Higgs. I was told you're here representing the Titan Arms Corporation."

"Uh, yes. That's right." Allen said.

"Well as you can see Mr. Stone, our armory here is fairly, eh, low-tech." Higgs said while motioning towards a small rack of fifty year old rifles. "I'm glad to see TAC finally sending a sales rep all the way out here."

"That makes one of us." Allen grumbled, keeping in character.

"Yeah, I know what you mean sir. No one comes to Dante because they want to." Higgs said. "So why don't we go ahead and get this sale started, so you can get off this frozen rock."

"Thank you." Allen said. He opened a briefcase he had brought with him and pulled out a small computer along with a few memory chips. He powered on the computer and plugged the chips into the appropriate slots. As the computers holographic display powered on Allen spoke, "I brought a few designs from our high-end production line, only available through direct sales from the company. They're expensive, but most of our customers report the price is well worth it."

"Yeah, a buddy of mine told me about a few of these rifles. Nothing like next generation tech to give you an edge next time pirates come out to play."

_Beats anything the Legion uses as well, especially after I've customized them_. Allen thought while saying, "I wouldn't know sir; I just make sales."

Allen pretended to try connecting to the TAC mainframe, which caused his computer to display an error message. The message wasn't missed by Higgs, who asked, "What seems to be the problem, sir?"

"It looks like the base's firewalls are blocking my Extra-net access." Allen lied as he pulled a small memory crystal out of his computer. "Here, this crystal has the codes for connecting to the TAC sales mainframe. Maybe you should take it to your communication center and see if you can connect from there." Allen handed the crystal to the wolf.

Higgs pocketed the chip and said, "I think I will. I'll be a few minutes; do you think you'll be alright waiting here for me?"

"Take your time, I'll be right here Petty Officer." Allen said. Higgs left almost immediately, too excited about getting TAC munitions to worry about the harmless sales-rep he was leaving behind.

_"I wonder how long until it'll take before he realizes you gave him a blank crystal_." Drew said.

"Actually I did give him the codes." Allen corrected him as he stowed his computer and rushed out of the armory. "I decided it would by me more time if Higgs gets caught up in the red tape of purchasing weapons from TAC."

_"Maybe, maybe not."_ Drew said. _"I guess you have ten minutes tops before they start looking for you."_

"I've already reached the server room." Allen said as he pushed through the door. He hunkered down next to a server tower and pulled his computer back out. He used an infrared link to connect to the base's mainframe, and his computer immediately started suppressing the alarm systems while Allen hacked his way into the archives. It didn't take long before he was sifting through gigabytes of data, looking for any communiqués between the shipyards and the local Legion headquarters.

"Jackpot." Allen said as he found a message title "Frigate Transfer." He opened the file and quickly read it.

_Major David Gabriel_

_The Sirian Legion requires the use of the STV-2344 _Long Haul_, so in accordance to Defense Contingency Order 65 the Legion is officially commandeering the _Long Haul_ and its crew. On behalf of the Legion I thank the Navy for its contribution to our grand empire's safety. You may expect the _Long Haul's_ return in two to three months. I would like to remind you that under DCO-65 I am not required to inform you why we require the _Long Haul_._

_Legion Chief Officer Martin Venthrope_

"Oh you've gotta be fuckin' kidding me." Allen groaned.

_"What?"_

"Good news, you were right about the Legion taking a Transport. Bad news, the Legion didn't say were they're sending it." Allen explained.

Drew sighed, _"Damn it. Alright, get out of there and meet me back at the Thunderhead. I'll go collect Nick and the pilot. We'll plan our next move there."_

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

Date/Time : August 24, 2893 / 1400

Location : Moray system, Dante, Outskirts, Raider Thunderhead

It took Allen longer than he had expected to reach the Thunderhead. Higgs spotted him on the way out – one thing led to another… _and_ Higgs was going to be waking up later tonight with a massive headache and an irrational fear of salesmen. Oh well.

Allen finally reached the Thunderhead's hide site. From the ground, the MR-19 Thunderhead was an impressive sight. It was a hundred-fifty tons of heavy armor, cannons, and missiles, measuring in at twenty-five feet tall, 80 feet long, and with a wingspan of 200 feet. Allen walked around to the rear of the craft and waited a moment for someone to lower the boarding ramp and let him in.

He found Drew and Samantha sitting in the craft's storage bay with several broken down weapons along with several bottles of lubricants and oil rags arrayed around them. Allen guessed Drew had been teaching her about Sirian weapons. Drew looked up from his gun and asked, "Have you come up with any ideas for our next move? I can only think of a few possible plays, and none of them are very good."

"Nope." Allen admitted. "We could send word to some of our contacts to look for the _Long Haul_, but that's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"More like looking for a needle in a stack of more fuckin' needles, man." Nick nearly shouted as he emerged from deeper in the craft where the cockpit was. "Besides, I've already told you what we ought to do Drew."

"No Nick. You just opened your mouth and crap came out like always." Drew responded, "I've already told you attacking the Legion base would only get our asses shot up."

"Oh, come on man." Nick pleaded. "I've got it all worked out. You and Allen attack the front gates while I hammer them from above with the 30mm's. The Legion will have records of where they sent that damn ship. We grab their memory crystals and we'll know where the fucker went."

"Oh, I get it now. You want three, sorry four, people to attack a base full of trained Legionnaires. Did you think about what happens when they decide to roll out some heavy armor?"

While they trashed it out, Allen started thinking about Nick's idea. "What do you think, Captain?" He asked underneath his brothers' argument.

"Please, just call me Sam or Samantha. I thought we covered that already. And I agree with Drew. Don't tell me you're actually putting some thought into Nick's suicidal idea."

"Actually I am." Allen said before sticking two fingers in his mouth and whistling loudly, causing Nick to stop mid-sentence. "Alright, Nick you're an idiot."

"Hey-."

"But even idiots can have good ideas." Allen continued. "I say we go with his idea."

"It's official, stupidity is contagious. Miss McCloud I suggest you protect yourself before you catch it as well." Drew groaned.

"Hear me out." Allen said. "There's very little that can withstand the 30mm's we have on this bird. Their birds only use 15mm's and they'll have to take off before they can fight back."

"All they need is one guy with a rocket launcher." Drew said.

Allen thought about it for a second, suddenly his face lit up as the light bulb came on. He searched through a few lockers that were pressed against the wall until he found what he was looking for, a large black box that measured one by one by three feet with M.A.A.D.S. written on the side.

"When did you pack that thing?" Drew asked as Allen pulled out a second box out of another locker. "What the heck? You brought two!"

"Sorry," Sam asked, "But what are those things."

Allen answered by opening one end of the box, revealing over a massive number of gun barrels. "Say hello to the Multi-barrel Active Area Denial System. There are five hundred fifty barrels, each holding fifteen stacked, electronically fired 6.21mm rounds. We set the two of these up on opposite sides of the base and put them under Sam's control, those Legionnaires will be too busy dealing with them to care about the Thunderhead. Or the two of us stealing their archieves."

Drew rubbed his jaw as he thought about Allen's proposal. "This could actually work. Nick, how soon can we get to the Sirian outpost?"

"At best speed, about an hour." Nick said while turning to go back to the cockpit.

"Without them seeing us on scanners dipshit." Allen clarified.

"Oh, right. Um, three maybe four hours." Nick corrected himself, slightly embarrassed by his mistake.

Drew just rolled his eyes. "Alright, I'll load magazines. Allen, make sure she knows what the hell she's doing with those things. Last thing I want is to be ground into mince meat by friendly fire."

Date/Time : August 24, 2893 / 2330

Location : Moray system, Dante, Outskirts, Legion outpost Delta-3

Allen couched in the snow, waiting for Drew to give everyone the go ahead for the attack and praying some Legionnaire didn't see them through the darkness. Drew quickly measure four strips of high-explosive adhesive and pressed them against the wall of the complex. Backing of, He quietly whispered, "Waiting on you Nick."

Allen looked off in the distance where Nick was supposed to be and saw a second long flash in the distance, followed a heartbeat later by the sound of 30mm tungsten rounds ripping through the concrete and steel and shouts of panic. Drew wait for the growl of the cannons to catch up with the supersonic rounds before detonating the explosives, letting the blast get lost in the cannon fire. Before anyone inside the base could react, a pair of missiles streamed in and took out another section of the base.

"I hope Nick doesn't get too trigger happy." Drew groaned while the two moved through their impromptu doorway. "Looks like Nick knocked out the power generators." He commented as the saw the blackened halls of the base.

"So who's first into the scary dark hallway filled with pissed off bad guys?" Allen asked, receiving a look that said who-do-you-think.

So Allen took point through the base's hallways with his powerful 11.5mm SMG at the ready. It was moments like this he was glad to have a military issue helmet that came with a night vision setting.

It didn't take long for them to run into some Legionnaires. It was a group of ten guys, luckily most of them were half asleep and none of them had NV anything. It was an incredibly one-sided fight as Allen hosed the lot down with his SMG, and the duo kept moving like nothing had happened.

They continued through the corridors, wiping out any Legionnaires they met and listening to the sounds of the battle outside. Judging by the constant thud of metal striking metal that reverberated throughout the structure, the Legion was having little luck knocking Nick out of the sky.

Once they reached the outpost's server room they wasted no time shooting out the lock. Drew decided against hacking into the system and opted to simply steal all the memory crystals to hack another day. Allen kept watch as his brother stuffed every chip he could get his paws on into a pocket.

Suddenly a grouped of heavily armed and armored soldiers erupted from an adjacent corridor, rushing direct for Allen. "Drew, hurry up." Allen shouted as he cut loose a burst of 11.5mm rounds. To his dismay the rounds hit the men's armor and stopped.

As the Legionnaires returned fire Allen ducked back into the archive room. "Good thing I came prepared." He joked as he hooked the SMG on his leg and pulled a rifle off his shoulder. "Drew, you done yet?"

"Yeah. I just grabbed the last one." Drew answered.

"Let me clear out these armored idiots then we make a break for our hole."

"I'm ready when you are."

Allen pulled the weapons bolt back a hair to insure he had a round in the chamber. Once satisfied he leaned out of the door frame and put a short burst on one of the men. He was soon rewarded with a scream and a thump as the rifle's rounds punched clean through the armor. He followed this with a longer burst which rewarded him with two more kills and forced the remainder of the men of take cover. That gave the Ryan's a chance to make a break for it, which they took in a heartbeat, rushing down the hall away from the bad guys and disappearing around the corner as they start shooting.

As they emerged from their original hole, Drew called into the team's radio. "We're out. Nick break off the attack and cover are tails with a smoke screen. McCloud, set your turrets to auto fire and make for the exfil point."

Allen looked back over his shoulder before they disappeared into the snowy woods to see numerous fires blazing in the base as the MAADS kept pouring a constant stream of rounds onto anyone stupid enough to go outside.

"_Where to now?" _Nick asked over the radio

"Where do you think?" Allen responded, "Back home."

_**Author's Notes :: Sorry about the long wait, but I warned ya'll I'd be updating this as I could. And I just haven't had the time between college stuff and work shit. Hopefully the next chapter will take less time but don't hold your breath.**_

_**Anyway, hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review and tell me if there's anything I need to work on.**_


	5. Chapter 5:  Settling In

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox. Additionally, this story is written under the impression that Star Fox Command is considered non-canon and did not happen.

Chapter Five: Settling In

Date/Time : August 25, 2893 / 0600

Location : Delta 19-A3 system, Open space, on course for system's inner asteroid belt

The blink drive of the Raider Thunderhead was vastly different than the FTL drive that landed Samantha in Sirian space. For one thing it didn't launch them an ungodly distance beyond their target destination into unknown space and leave them stranded there. Aside from the obvious benefit of actually working, blink drives also allowed for FTL maneuvering.

There were two problems with the drives. First, they were a good deal slower than rift drives – the light 70 light-year (ly) jump they made from Moray to D19-A3 took several hours as opposed the instantaneous jump of rift drives. And second, Sam quickly learned the drives caused what Nick assured her would be "only slight" queasiness.

That being said Nick had made a point of locking himself in the cockpit before blinking out of the Moray system as Samantha's stomach began protesting the sudden change in velocities almost immediately. This was putting the situation politely. In truth she nearly threw up all over Allen and Drew, leaving all of them gunning for Nick. Luckily for him the others had plenty of time to cool down.

"We just reached our target." Nick said shouted from behind the cockpit door when they finally exited the blink. "Did you have an enjoyable jump ladies and gentlemen?" He continued as he finally felt safe enough to open the cockpit door.

"Nick, just shut up before we have to kill you." Allen said. "The last thing I want to do is tell Mom that her youngest son dead."

Before Nick could say another word, Sam appeared from the lower areas of the Thunderhead. "Did you enjoy you first jump, Sexy?" Nick asked, receiving a fist across his jaw and a shut-the-fuck-up glare. "Right. I'll take that as a no."

"I told you to keep quite Nick." Allen said.

"Where are we?" Samantha asked as she leaned over Nick to look at the navigation readout in front of him, roughly putting a hand on his shoulder daring him to say something.

"The Delta nineteen-dash-Ay-three System," Nick explained, keeping his mouth in check, "Contains about thirteen planets – none habitable – and three asteroid rings."

"So… why are we here?"

"It's our home away from home." Allen explained. "The system was used for mining up until a few years ago. The company who used this system was running into trouble with some pirates, so we decided to lend them a hand. Long story short, the company was grateful for our services and left us a hollowed out asteroid they had been using as a headquarters when they pulled out of the system."

"Sounds like a great place to hide." Sam said.

""Yeah, it's almost perfect." Nick said. "Only problem is it gets kinda lonely. Maybe it'll be less lonely with you there, if you get my drift." It took a few seconds, but Sam understood what Nick was saying – which rewarded him with a second fist across the jaw from Samantha. She quickly left the cockpit, huffing about killing an "annoying little fucker."

As soon as she was gone Allen smacked him in the back of the head. "What the fuck was that?" he demanded.

"Can't blame a guy for trying." Nick said with a shrug. "Especially with a fine piece of ass like that."

"You're a fucking animal, you know that." Allen said. "Plus, I warned you not to even try pulling you 'moves' on her. She isn't you're type."

"A bitch?" He asked while rubbing his sore jaw.

"Smart." Allen replied. "She isn't the usual floozy you pick up on a regular basis. Anyway, how long until we reach the base."

"About ten more minutes." Nick answered confidently.

Fifteen minutes later Nick was using the Thunderhead's several hull-mounted docking thrusters to slide the massive fighter through into its place in the hanger. As the four disembarked Drew tossed Nick a small duffle bag, saying, "Here you go playboy, the data crystals from the base. You know what to do, have fun."

"Wait, how many crystals did you grab?"

"All of 'em."

"Are they at least in some kind of order?"

"What do you think player?" Drew said with a smirk, "Of course not. Have fun, and see you next week."

Nick sulked off mumbling to himself. Drew waited for Nick to disappear before saying, "With Nick searching through all those crystals by hand, we'll at least have a little piece and quite . It's going to take some time for him to go through all those, and we can't do a damn thing until we know where that plane is. Like fucking always we're fucking stuck." Allen coiled in apprehension, and Sam started to feel anger boil up from deep inside of the older vulpine. "FUCK!"

"Are you alright?" Sam asked slowly, voicing her concern.

Drew gave her a look of disbelief - Sam could feel waves of anger rolling off the older vulpine. "Am I alright? What. The. FUCK! Do you think? We were already behind then you show up and now-."

"ANDREW!" Allen barked, cutting him off before he could build into a rant. "You need to calm down. You know where to find your next target, take a few days and handle it."

Drew blinked several times like he hadn't realized what he was doing. "I think…" he said slowly, "I think I should."

Drew walked off in a daze, ignored the shocked expression on Sam's face. When he was out of earshot Sam rounded on Allen and demanded, "What the hell was that all about! I thought he was about to tear my throat out!"

"He has some anger issues." Allen said.

"You could say that again." Sam said, "You mind giving me a reason why he got so angry?"

"It's a private matter between him and whoever he decides to tell." Allen answered.

"That isn't much of answer."

"Sorry, but it's the best one I can give you." Allen offered her a weak smile before continuing, "If it makes you feel any better, Drew hasn't even told Nick yet. And I only learned about it after Dad died. He usually does a better job controlling himself, but he been a bit… restless lately."

"I don't like secrets Ryan." She said flatly. "And if I wanted to, I could just pull the information from your head."

"Well, you can certainly try." Allen laughed. "But you won't get very far. You don't live with a telepath your entire life without figuring out how to block them."

"You can do that?" Sam asked, "My mother never told me you could."

"There's a good reason for that; she's your mother. Last thing she wants is you to learn how to block her out." Allen said. "Anyway. Despite what Drew said before, there are still a few things we can and need to do. See the last thing we want is for you to get any unwanted attention over something stupid like not having proper ID's. That alone will keep us busy for the next couple days at least."

"This is going to mean more blink jumps, isn't it." Sam groaned.

Date/Time : August 30, 2893 / 0930

Location : Delta 19-A3 system, Raider hideout

"Hey Allen!" Nick shouted as he walked towards his blood brothers room in the asteroid base. "Allen, I've got something you need to see." He said, as he opened the door and barged on in. The first thing he noticed was that a lot of the usual clutter was missing from the room. Then he realized that the person in the bed wasn't Allen, and more importantly they weren't wearing anything but their underwear.

"Get out!" Samantha yelled as she through anything within arm's reach at Nick. It took a pair of boots and a rather large book to the head for him out of his stupor and get out of the room.

"Damn!" Nick said with a smile as he rubbed his head. "Completely worth it. Now where is Allen?"

"Right here dipshit." Nick looked behind him and saw Allen walking towards him. "I told you I gave her my room since we didn't have any extra beds. Of course you're head was so deep in the gutter you didn't hear a word I said. Just like you are right now."

"Damn, she has a great body. Seriously they aren't made that way back home." Nick said under his breath. "I would-."

"NICK!" Allen shouted while smacking the little pervert upside the head.

"What!"

"You came looking for me, what is it? Did you find something in the data crystals?"

"Unfortunately no. But we did get a message from Masseria (Mass – er – ie – a) Shipping. They need an escort for a weapon shipment and we're the ones they called. They said they've got to go through the Harlan Expanse and that they'll pay any expense."

"Fuck me." Allen groaned. "Why do they always want to use the Expanse? Don't they realize it's a death trap? Pirates love that area for ambushes."

"It's faster than all the safe routs. Plus they pay us well, and between the three of us the pirates don't stand a chance. So why are you bitching?"

"Drew's gone, you're busy, and I don't feel like taking on an ambush by myself."

"I can take a day off and help." Nick said, looking almost hopeful.

"No, what you're doing is more important." That caused the little guy's face to fall. Allen thought for a few more seconds before saying, "Actually, this could be a good chance to let the Captain practice with the Thunderhead. Tell them we accept."

"Alright. Um, I'll warn her real quick and go do that." Nick said, hoping for another look. He rushed over to the door to Sam's room before Allen could stop him.

As soon as the door was open Nick realized his mistake as McCloud was standing in front of him, fully clothed with an evil grin on her face and heavy combat boots on her feet. "Hi." She said a split second before kicking him in the crotch. "For the record, learn to knock or you're going to learn to hate me."

"Already do." He gasped as she stepped over him.

"I overhead you from my room. When do we leave?" She asked Allen.

"Soon. Nick, pick your lazy ass up off the ground and get me the details for the mission. Send them to my communicator." Allen said, receiving the finger from his groaning little brother. "Sam, we need to prep a couple Thunderheads for battle. Follow me."

Date/Time : August 30, 2893 / 1730

Location : Deep Space - Harlan Expanse, shipping formation.

Sam felt like she was about to die of boredom. Three hours of sitting in a cockpit with nothing to do gave her plenty of time to acquaint herself with all the Thunderhead's controls, but by now she had nothing to do but fiddle with the helmet and the G-suit Allen had provided her with. She decided to run yet another systems check just to have something to look at.

Twin 30mm rotary cannons – online, good

66mm missile pods – online, good

Twin Gurthern-Mitchell 30,000 pound plasma drive engines – online, good

Gurthern-Mitchell Active Obstacle Avoidance System – online, good

All green, just like every other time.

"_Hmm_," Allen mumbled over the comm channel. "_Guess I was wrong about the ambush_."

"Looks like it." Sam agreed and like clockwork a red warning light appeared on her helmet's HUD.

BLINK DRIVE MALFUNCTION DETECTED, ABORTING JUMP

"Um, I think I have a problem Allen."

"_No you don't_." Allen said. _"Lock and load Sam! This is an ambush, the pirates are pulling us out of our jump."_

Sure enough both Thunderheads and the freighter they were escorting appeared as one in the middle of eight small fighters and a larger corvette. "_Great_." Allen said. _"I'll take the one on the left, you get the ones on the right."_

"There's eight on the right!"

"_And a corvette on the left, we're_ even." Allen pointed out. "Besides those are just old BuzzSaw fighters. They're slow and weak, plus their 15mm cannons will barely scratch your paint."

"Whatever Jackass." She grumbled as she chose her first victim and hit the throttle. The Thunderhead quickly accelerated despite its large mass and was within firing range in seconds. As soon as she had a lock she fired a pair of missiles. The first guy tried to avoid the missiles but failed, becoming little pieces of interstellar debris in an instant. The second guy was in her sights almost instantly, so she fired a split second burst, shredding him with 30mm rounds. "Well that was easy enough."

"_You've got one on your six."_ Allen informed her lazily. She checked her scanner and saw that one actually meant the remaining six.

"Oh shit." She cursed while rolling down and to the left with a quick jerk, hoping to throw off at least one. It didn't work, as she learned when she felt her bird shook from several small impacts. "Allen I can use a hand here!"

"_You've got it_." He assured her as her craft rattled a second time. She turned towards Allen and saw him flying circle around a smoking, dead corvette with a large hole in its side.

"What the fuck are you doing?" She screamed, her voice getting higher with a third shot.

"_Use your AOAS. Activate your lower-bow and upper-stern thrusters at the same time while cutting your engines for two seconds, then activate your reverse trusters_." Allen instructed.

"What?"

"_Lower-bow and upper-stern thrusters, cut engines, reverse_." Allen repeated. "Trust me."

Doubtful, she did as he said with a series of quick commands. Next thing she knew, she was crushed into her seat by powerful G-forces as her bird flipped on its axis while keeping all its forward momentum. After a few seconds her bird was flying backwards, facing the six fighters on her six. She wasted no time firing a volley of missiles at them followed by a long burst of cannon fire. It was over before it started as her followers disappeared in a series of explosions.

"Holy shit," Sam yelled as she righted her craft. "That fucking worked!"

_"The Raider Roll."_ Allen bragged. _"Invented by yours truly. I think we'll be clear from here to our destination. Nice job by the way McCloud. I hope you forgive me for not helping like that."_

"You're just lucky it worked you ass." She growled, making him think she was angry with him. After a few second of letting him squirm she laughed and said, "Though I will admit it was worth it. I would have never thought to try that in an Arwing."

Allen fell silent for a few minutes before finally speaking again, "I just got a message from Nick. He's managed to get something out of the data crystals. Let's finish this up and get back ASAP."

_**Author's Notes :: Sorry about the stupidly long wait. Like last time, I blame work, school, and laziness. Please review and tell me if there's anything you think I could improve.**_


End file.
